After market servicing of air conditioners, especially by home enthusiasts is an ever-increasing and important American market. Many of these users are relatively unsophisticated and avoid undertaking simple tasks because of the complications of combining too many independent separate steps themselves.
One area addressed by my prior patent application which is about to issue is the use of a single can for retrofitting automobile air conditioners which combines both refrigerant and oil. The beneficial uses of a single can approach in terms of simplicity for the user, accuracy in the insertion of the correct proportions during the time of recharging and overall simplicity and error-proof design has led to commercial success of applicant""s prior invention.
Another area which lends itself to single can refill approaches for automobile air conditioners is for an all in one refill and treatment where chemicals are added to treat the air conditioning system as a performance booster as well as sealant being included to seal the system. The treatment chemicals employed by applicant""s assignee is sold as Maxi-Cool, and is a chemical which is a performance booster and treats various parts of the automobile air conditioning system enhancing its performance and extending its life.
Heretofore, each of the above individual components including the booster used by the after market purchaser was supplied in separate cans each having its own connection to the automobile air conditioning system intake service port. The consumer generally purchases a separate refrigerant, separate oil and a separate performance booster and would have to gauge how much to add of each to appropriately treat the automobile air conditioning system while recharging and refilling the same concurrently. Additionally, a consumer might fully recharge the automobile air conditioning system and later choose to add booster treatment chemicals but the proportions might be inaccurate. Every time a consumer connects and disconnects a hose to the service port of the air conditioning system, he/she runs the risk of bleeding out refrigerant and oil. Therefore, with the multiple can approach generally employed in the prior art, after market users who could benefit from the economics of doing simple repairs themselves avoid such simple repairs when there are a multiplicity of processes required, each requiring connecting and removing another hose to and from the air conditioning system.
An object of this invention is to extend the single can refill approach for automobile air conditioners to further enhance the utilization of economic benefit of reduction of packaging for an otherwise overall enhanced efficiency of a single can all in one approach in which preset amounts of refrigerant, oil and booster treatment are included to be concurrently inserted into the automobile air conditioning system. Additionally, sealant may or may not be included.
Another object of this invention is to materially reduce packaging required so that rather than have three sets of packages for three separate additives for an automotive air conditioner, the consumer can simply buy one package. Industry and society benefits by materially reducing the packaging required to achieve the function of refill and treatment of an automotive air conditioner in the aftermarket.
Other objects, advantages and features of this invention will become more apparent from the following description.